Nine-time and reigning Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series champion Matt Hirschman has withdrawn from today’s season opening Propane Plus Heating & Cooling 75 at Thompson Speedway.
Hirschman has started 56 of the 57 Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series events run since the division’s inception in 2014.
Hirschman, of Northampton, Pa., announced the decision in a posting on Facebook this morning.
The post read: “Last night we made the decision to not attend Thompson today due to the forecast, avoiding a potential repeat of last year. It was a difficult decision but one that is made easier when you are a team that travels more than 5 hours one way and has crew that travels the same distance from a different direction. It is pretty crazy to think the forecast high temperature in Northampton, PA is 82 degrees today while only 44 degrees in Thompson, CT! We will take advantage of this time and weather to prepare for upcoming events.”
Weather plauged the efforts of the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series’ attempt to run at the 2024 Icebreaker Saturday with the event eventually being postponed to the Sunoco World Series weekend last October.
Tomorrow’s NASCAR Modified Tour Icebreaker 150 at Thompson has already been postponed to Saturday April 5.
Discover more from RaceDayCT.com
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
He’ll still be a contender to win the championship.
Slap in the face to a series that has done so much to help showcase his career. The forecast the last 3 days showed a window for racing from morning until late afternoon at Thompson. Next time you hear someone say Hirschman is a true racer remember, he skipped out on the series and the track promoters today.
I think that is an unfair comment. I don’t think that it is a slap in the face at all. If it were any one else, it wouldn’t have been an issue. This is nothing but people not liking him because of his selectiveness and his consistency
Rain Man, that is a thoughtless comment. It takes a massive effort to roll a racecar out 25 times a season. One missed race and he’s not a “true racer”; hardly.
Hey big mike, it takes a massive effort by series management and track promoters to put on a racing event like the one matt decided to skip out on at the last minute yesterday. Sure over the last 15 years there have been a few series operators and track promoters who put their necks on the line and gambled to have a successful day trying to put on a big paying modified event that matt showed up to and won. Yesterday he could have shown he was a team player and showed some gratitude and support for those people by supporting what they were doing on a hard day. Instead he skipped out on them.
Last year there was i :window of opportunity” to get the race in, and mother nature changed the gameplan mid-day. For a guy that races for a living, the expense and weather odds weren’t worth the risk. How can you fault anyone for that?
According to his website he was also planning on running the NASCAR tour race. Even if they brought two cars it probably would have been the same crew. Splitting the weekend probably left him having to pick one race or the other just on budget. The NASCAR race probably offers a bigger payday and involves different sponsor/partner commitments- my guess is he’d be running for the Elite Towing team, whereas in the Tri Track race he’d be running his own car. If he’s still committed to the NASCAR race, and if he’s still coming back for the May Tri Track race at Thompson, the new schedule means three trips to Connecticut for the whole crew instead of two. If yesterday’s race has been rained out, and a little rain was still a possibility, that would have really sucked for that operation. So I’m disappointed, but I get it.